The Christological nature of Jesus' proclamation of salvation

Herman Ridderbos says that there was a motif of fulfillment forming the foundation of Jesus' preaching of the remission of sins - that is to say, it was not something new being said, but it was a continuation of what had been previously spoken of in the Old Testament. What had been foretold and prophesied of was now breaking into this world.

All these passages are not (what is called) "explicitly-Christological." And yet the exuberance of Jesus' first proclamation of salvation, and the incomparable depiction of the absolutely gratuitous character of the remission of sins are direct consequences of the break-through of the new world aeon [age] that has started. In other words, Jesus is able to proclaim the remission of sins in such a matchless way because he is not only the prophet, but also the king of the kingdom. He not only proclaims salvation, but is its bearer, and acquirer, and sharer of it with his followers.(1)

(1) Ridderbos, The Coming of the Kingdom, pg. 231.